Goldilocks
by tea-induced scribbles
Summary: Short Fiction inspired by photo on Twitter. Nishioka and Miller are about to do the unthinkable and take their lives into their own hands... Nishioka/Miller Bro-ship


_A/N: Completely unrelated to my current fics. It was inspired by a photo posted on twitter by Miller A.K.A. Kevin Michael Martin. Just a bit of fun. So enjoy!_

* * *

 ** _"Just remember; if we get caught you're deaf and I don't speak English" Nishioka told Miller at the beginning of their partnership._**

* * *

"Dude, gotta do this quick. Captain barely chews his food." Miller told Nishioka as they were trying to look 'normal' as they raced down the p-way to Captain Slattery's quarters. It had taken them three months to come to this moment.

Three months of surreptitiously studying Captain Slattery's movements on the ship, tracking his unorthodox work schedule and eating times to finally find the perfect window for when his quarters would be empty. Right now at the Captain's 2am coffee and snack time was the only time the p-ways were empty and the Captain was definitely not going to be back for 15 minutes tops.

They stopped at the door, and Nishioka stuffed the clipboard he had with him as an excuse if they got caught. Reports that needed to be signed. Not that they were urgent but it was a good smoke screen. He knocked on the door and looked to Miller. The two looked down each side of the p-way and found no one around. So they pushed the door open.

"Quick man," Miller said as he closed the door. Nishioka smiled as a warm sense of victory washed over him. He had this deployment's photo challenge in the bag. He and Miller had teamed up this deployment, an unorthodox pairing but it worked as Nishioka was usually in CIC while Miller had easier access and time to do intel on their targets while Nishioka charmed his way in and out of trouble for them to get what they needed.

The Deployment Photo Challenge was easy, players got a long list of photos they needed to get with a point system. The harder or more dangerous the photo was to attain the more points a team or player gained. Most people worked in pairs or groups of four. Then when they got home they had a celebratory welcome home party where they uploaded their photos onto a cloud server and tallied their points. This year they were planning to share them on a laptop and tally points that way.

The prize was a pot of cash that they all put $10 dollars into and the glory of being the victors. Some photos were easy like capture a sunset, others were uncomfortable like cramming as many people as you could into a sonar space and then there were the dangerous ones like getting a selfie with Commander Garnett both smiling without her knowing it was for the photo challenge. Bonus points were given if you could get her to make a funny face in a second photo. Nishioka had managed to sell that his cute niece was really into engineering and that he wanted to prove to her that female engineers existed on the Nathan James. It worked after a lot of work as Garnett was not easily fooled. He just didn't mention his niece was four yr old who was more infatuated with my little pony and weddings. Frankly Nishioka's niece was freaking adorable so of course no one could say 'no' to that face even in a photo.

Now, the one photo challenge that earned the most points though was getting a photo in Captain Slattery's quarters in a more casual setting. No one was game to try it but Nishioka had come in second last deployment. So this time he was going to win. It was why he'd picked Miller to pair up with. The man had grown a lot over the past year and training with Wolf and Cruz had made him into a mean operator. Something Nioshioka needed to win and Miller was all in for winning money.

He picked up a photo of Captain Slattery and Captain Chandler and raced into the sleeping quarters and laid down on the bed. Miller was in the room and pulled out his phone trying not to laugh because if they were caught? Their asses would be char-grilled. The photo challenge wasn't exactly condoned by senior leadership given people were mucking around in their off time but they pretended to look the other way as it kept morale up and Nishioka figred they found it amusing to watch the lower ranks do stupid stuff. The only time they get annoyed was when it interfered with the running of the ship or someone got seriously injured. Luckily the latter hadn't happened. Yet. but if the Captain found them in his quarters that could change.

"Got it?" Nishioka asked Miller wondering why it was taking so long to take one photo.

"You should get under the covers." Miller said egging him on as he flicked through to his camera app and got the right angle.

"Nah, take the photo and let's get out of here." Nishioka told him, before he laid back and closed his eyes pretending to be asleep while hugging the framed photo in his arms like a child did a blanket.

"Got it." Miller told him. Nishioka jumped up from the bed glad they had been successful so far.

"Awesome, smooth out the bed and I'll put the photo back. Then we get out of here." Nishioka told him with a smile as he went back into the other room. They had to make sure they left no signs they were here. So he placed the framed photo back on the desk by the computer and made sure it was facing at the same angle. Once he felt it was right he picked up the clipboard he brought with him and turned to Miller who came out of the sleeping area. He gave Nishioka a thumbs up and they moved to the door. Now they just had to get out of the room without being caught or giggling like school girls.

They stopped at the door as this was the moment of truth, they shared a look and Nishioka gestured for him to open it. "Whatever happens man, we've had a good run." Miller told him.

"Agreed, you're the best partner I've had in this game. It's been an honour." Nishioka said, Miller nodded and opened the door. His face pinched as if he was preparing to be caught. He slowly pulled it open and looked around the P-way and gave a sigh of relief as there wasn't anyone around. He stepped out of the room and Nishioka quickly followed him. They closed the door and rushed away from the scene of the 'crime'. It wasn't until they got to the lower decks that they took the time to see the photo and bumped fists.

* * *

Less than 8 minutes later,

Mike returned to his quarters finally able to relax and get some sleep. Years of doing night duty were hard to break but luckily he knew how to operate on very little sleep. So he could indulge in his 2am habit of having a warm milk and whatever baked goods the chef left out for snacks. It usually helped put him to sleep for at least five hours. That's all he needed.

He moved towards the sleeping area of his quarters but stopped as something wasn't right. He didn't know what it was but something twigged his senses. He looked around and it didn't take long for him to know what was off when his eyes landed on the photo of him and Mike that had been taken at a BBQ. He walked over to the frame and realised it had moved, he wasn't sure how it had moved but put it down to the rocking of the ship or the soft vibrations of the engine as he knew no one was game enough to enter his quarters without his permission. So he pushed it back to it's proper place on the desk, happy with it being back in it's place before he continued to bed as he'd prefer to sleep than waste time on a moved picture frame.


End file.
